HOW STABLE WAS THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE ON THE OUTBREAK OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN 1914?

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HOW STABLE WAS THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE ON THE OUTBREAK OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN 1914?

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was born to a large extent out of the defeats and chaos of the First World War, and many historians have argued that the Bolshevik seizure of power was mainly attributable to this factor.  Certainly the war highlighted the weaknesses of the Russian economy and system of government.  Nevertheless, the level of revolutionary activity in the preceding fifty years suggests that the Tsarist regime was vulnerable to political upheaval, and therefore it might be fairer to say that war determined the nature, timing and course of the revolution rather than being its main cause.

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The autocratic Russian government had to contend with many problems.  At the heart of these problems was her backwardness economically, socially and politically.  The dilemma facing her rulers from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the outbreak of World War One was whether or not to modernize and unleash potentially dangerous forces for change, or resist change and risk falling further behind her Western European rivals.  As a result the country seemed to be constantly in the throes of reaction or reform during the nineteenth century.  Even the ‘Tsar Liberator’, Alexander II, who - at least early in his reign - favoured liberal reforming policies, seemed unwilling to restrict his own autocratic powers.  As Kliuchevskii observed, it was Tsarist policies that really fostered conspiracy in Russia:

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“...from the accession to the throne of Alexander I in 1801, the Russian government engaged in provocative activity: it would give society just as much freedom as was necessary to evoke a first response, and then collar and punish the simpletons who responded incautiously.

Although the weakness or inflexibility of the later Romanov tsars was a contributory factor to Russia’s difficulties, it must be admitted that the problems they faced were immense.  The sheer size and multi-ethnic nature of the empire made it difficult to govern, although the policy of ‘Official Nationality’ pursued by Alexander III and Nicholas ...

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